


Signs

by words_reign_here



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-11 12:39:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7892608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/words_reign_here/pseuds/words_reign_here
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Airports see more sincere kisses than a wedding hall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Signs

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, look. No one asked for this and it was just something I was thinking about.

“I'm awake, what, what happened, who's hurt, what do we need?” Stiles asked, already talking and putting his shirt on and pulling his shoes on while searching for his pants.

“Stiles.”

“Yeah, yep, I'm here-”

“Wake up. Slow down.” Derek said.

Stiles stopped trying to get dressed and looked around. He looked down at his phone and it told him it was just past three in the morning.

“What's- uh- what's going on?” He finally asked. Too many years of urgent phone calls and life or death situations had conditioned him to wake up and be ready at the slightest urging.

“Scott just called me. The twins are sick. He won't be able to pick me up tomorrow night from the airport.” Derek said.

“Oh. So you just need a ride?” Stiles asked.

“Yeah. I didn't realize what time it was. Sorry.” Derek said.

“It's ok.” Stiles said and rubbed his face. His heart was returning to a normal pace. “Hey, so how's it going out there? Negotiations ok?”

Derek let out a growl.

“Oh yeah?” Stiles asked. He sat down on the edge of his bed. He was living in the loft now that Derek had rebuilt the Hale house. Members of the pack lived at strategic points in town, so that there could always be someone where there needed to be. “So, that good, huh?” He took off his one shoe and shoved his jeans down one leg.

“These people are _idiots_...” Derek started.

Stiles shifted his pillows around a little and then remembered to take his jacket off before getting back into bed. He listened as Derek went on for a bit before they finally said goodnight.

As Stiles drifted off to sleep, an idea unfurled in his head and he smiled.

***

When Scott walked into the loft with Brianna in his hands, his eyes went wide. Allison followed him, Brandon clinging to her neck.

“Are you serious?” She said to him.

“Pretty!” Brianna said and then sneezed all over Scott.

Scott barely took notice. “He might actually kill you this time.”

“Worth it.” Stiles said, stepping back to get a better look at his masterpiece.

“What do you want on your tombstone?” Allison asked.

***

Negotiations finally ended and Derek had grabbed his bag out of his room and headed for the airport, five hours early. He didn't care if he was going to be early, as long as he didn't have to continue to breathe the same air as the stupidest group of people that he had ever had the bad luck of meeting. He drank shitty coffee and warded off at least three unwanted advances.

Planes made him uncomfortable. Confined areas without an obvious way out that wouldn't lead to death, even for him were not his forte. His own pack hundreds of miles away and frankly, everything was rubbing him the wrong way. The only thing that got a smile out of him were the kids that discovered his magic trick of hiding silver dollars and pulling them out of their ears. Stiles called it his “grandpa joke”, but even he smiled when Derek did it for Erica and Boyd's kids or Scott's twins.

When Derek stepped off of the small plane and the first scent of Beacon Hills hit him in the face, he sighed.

He smelled Stiles first and then, in the distance, something sparkled, caught his eye, and drew him closer.

He shifted his bag and crossed the tarmac quickly.

The sparkle became a shape, then a word.

Underneath that word, Stiles' wide, grinning face.

Derek stopped and took the sight in.

Off to the side, Isaac was recording his reaction and the possible death.

Instead of anger, Derek felt a pressure release in his chest, like a coil wound too tight. He smirked and shook his head. He let his chin touch his chest, his bag fall to his feet and covered his face when he snorted. The snort turned into a giggle, the giggle into a laugh, the laugh into tears.

When he looked up, Stiles was still holding his sign high, the sun catching the glitter, the sign screaming out the word NERD, glinting and proud.

***

“So when will you be back?” Scott asked. He caught a ball that Brandon threw at his sister that was way over her head. He gave it back to Brianna and shot Brandon a warning look. Not that Derek would care if anything was broken. Everything that could break had probably been broken at least once and all the pack members were getting pretty good with super glue these days.

“Two weeks from now.”

Erica's son, Johnny, growled.

“Words.” Boyd reminded him.

“Why so long?” Johnny asked, looking at his dad.

“There is a lot of things to translate and I don't want to miss anything.” Stiles said and held his arms open. Johnny glared at him but Natalia didn't have her older brother's qualms about showing affection and immediately climbed into Stiles' lap.

“Don't go.” She insisted.

“I have to.” Stiles said. “But I'll be back.”

“What if you get hurt like last time?” Natalia asked.

“I won't. Promise. It's all books and reading for me.” Stiles said and leaned a cheek on top of her head.

“Scoot.” Johnny said and got his own spot on Stiles' lap. Pretty soon, the twins had joined them and Stiles was at the bottom of a puppy pile, begging for release. The kids ignored him and pretty soon, all four of them were asleep and Stiles was playing a game on his phone, too scared to move out from under them.

***

Stiles spent almost two weeks in a dusty old library that hadn't seen the likes of current technology in at least a hundred fifty years. He scanned in as many pages as he could a day and sent them through the translation app that he had and what he couldn't figure out, he sent off to Lydia.

He was going out of his mind before the time with the monks was up. They didn't speak; vow of silence and all that. However, they had volunteered their information and it was such a big gesture that Stiles couldn't pass it up.

Nonetheless, Stiles felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin if he didn't get back to his own stomping ground.

Once at the airport, he put his earbuds in and turned on his music. He leaned his head back and let the music beat a welcome tattoo through his head and sighed. In seven hours, he would be home.

***

 

“Erica.” Derek said when she picked up her phone.

“Yes?” She said.

“I need your help.” Derek said and he spoke so seriously that Boyd was already standing up when Derk continued, “I want to get Stiles back for a couple of months ago.”

Boyd sat back down and returned to the newspaper in front of him. He didn't even want to look at Erica's face and the plans that were no doubt starting to take root.

“Right. I'm going to hit the art store over here. You get the Wal-Mart over there. Get all the glitter you can find. And the poster boards. All of them.”

Derek hung up without another word.

***

“I can't believe you guys roped me into this.” Allison muttered.

“Higher!” Scott insisted.

“I think the angle is better over here.” Lydia said and went over to the other side of Derek. She held up her phone to check and nodded.

“Is this good? Can you see it?” Isaac asked.

“A little higher.” Boyd urged.

“He's here!” Scott said.

Derek looked around the people getting off the plane but he didn't have to. Stiles' laughter could be heard from across the tarmac.

In Allison's hands, there was a sign that read _Guess Who Missed Stiles The Most?_   With an arrow pointing at Derek.

In Scott's hands there was another sign that read _Best Day Ever._

In Boyd's hands was another that read _Keep Your Ass At Home, I Hate Making Signs._

In Isaac's hands was one that read a simple _Welcome Home._

In Erica's hand was one more that said _Don't Leave Us Again, Derek Is Mean When You Are Gone._

In Derek's hands was one in gold glitter, bigger than the others, and he held it as high as he could, like Stiles wouldn't see them in the small group of fifteen people waiting for others coming off the plane. He held it proudly and all it said was one word:

_DORK._

Stiles kept them all and hung them up in the loft.

***

“So no one wants to go?” Derek asked pitifully.

But he didn't have the lifetime of practice in puppy eyes and no. No one wanted to go to Cleveland to help sort out a doppelganger mess.

It was four days before Derek returned to Beacon Hills and when he did, he had a headache and he was hungry and if he saw two identical people ever again, he would probably drink his own weight in alcohol.

So when he saw five storm troopers lined up in perfect formation, no one could blame him for tripping over his own feet and landing on his chest. The middle one held a sign up high and it had Derek's name in gold glitter written across it.

“Goddamn it.” Derek muttered when he picked himself up. “That is going to be hard to top.”

***

Stiles' great aunt Meryl was older than dirt and smarter than everyone on this planet and a witch of incredible power, so visiting her was never a hardship.

But Stiles was not a lying liar who lies (at least to himself (lately)) and there was a small jump in his step when he got off the plane but he almost climbed right back in when he heard drums and a guitar.

“ _Baby come back, any kind of fool could see_ _  
_ _There was something in everything about you_ _  
_ _Baby come back, you can blame it all on me-”_

Derek Hale was singing.

On a tarmac.

In public.

Stiles could die a happy person.

***

It was another four months before Derek had to leave Beacon Hills for any reason. This time it was just a gathering of alphas to discuss border lines and any rogues. Really, it was a time to gather, gossip, complain and eat more food than really was necessary.

Alphas needed vacations and sometimes, contrary to popular belief, an alpha's company is exactly what another alpha needed.

When Derek got off his plane, there were no storm troopers, there was no band, or even an embarrassingly huge sign decorated with glitter.

It was just Stiles, standing there in the drizzle, his hair damp and smelling of home. He had a small smile on his face when Derek approached and his eyes were warm.

“Hey.” Derek said.

“Hey.” Stiles replied and leaned forward. He put his face in the crook of Derek's neck and while the away time had been nice, the sheer amount of trust that Stiles had in him was better than everything else. “Just me this time. Everyone says that I can't really outdo you singing to me in public and they kind of have a point. So. Just me. Hello.”

Derek pulled Stiles close and let himself soak in the smell of home and pack and content. “This is good. I like this.”

Stiles pulled back and kissed him, easily, on the corner of his mouth. “Good.”

“Yeah.” Derek said softly, his eyes closed, and swayed into Stiles mouth, stole a surprised kiss from him. “Take me home.”

“Good plan.”

“Not like that.”

“Damn.”

“Yet.”

“ _Yes._ ”

 


End file.
